Much work is presently being done on the achievement of ignition and burn of fusion fuel such as, for example, deuterium-tritium in pellet form. While there are a number of different approaches to this problem, one of them includes the utilization of a source of energy from a laser and particular pellet configurations which will make it possible to achieve ignition and burn in a reaction chamber. Patents which illustrate generally the apparatus which can be used in this type of system are:
Whittlesey 3,378,446 -- Apr. 16, 1968 PA1 Daiber 3,489,645 -- Jan. 13, 1970 PA1 Hedstrom 3,762,992 -- Oct. 2, 1973
It has been proposed to use radiation from thermonuclear reactions for the dissociation of water to hydrogen and oxygen in one step. This is described in a copending application of Theodor Teichmann, Ser. No. 414,369, filed Nov. 9, 1973 and also in the application of Gomberg and Teitel, Ser. No. 414,370, filed Nov. 9, 1973. The one-step process, involves usually radiation dissociation caused by neutrons, alpha, or x radiation, which may come from Neutron generators, Fission reactions or other radiation sources. The invention involves exposing the target molecule directly to radiation preferably from a fusion or fission source to produce the desired product. The copending application of the same inventor filed concurrently herewith, Ser. No. 674,616, a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 416,997 filed Nov. 19, 1973, relates to the use of radiation in chemical processes and is incorporated herein fully by reference as background to the specific chemical processes fully set forth herein. The use of radiation from thermo-nuclear fusion reactions has a significant advantage over the use of radiation from fission in such processes in that it is less contaminated radioactively with fission fragments and provides a more efficient source of neutron radiation.
When the fission process is used as the radiation source, materials must be exposed directly to the fission fragments in order to obtain effective energy transfer and this also requires that the material be exposed to uranium or plutonium fuel directly. In some instances, the use of uranium dust to be mixed with the reactants is recommended. (See Advances in Nuclear Science & Technology, Vol. 1, Edited by Henley and Kouts, Academic Press, 1962, P. 298.) The result is a rather severe contamination of the products by radioactive fission fragments and by the fuel particles themselves. Direct exposure is necessary since about 80 percent of the fission energy is contained in the fission fragments.
In thermonuclear fusion of D-T, 80 percent of the energy is released as fast neutrons and the remaining 20 percent of the energy is released as alpha and X rays. In the fusion reaction, the material to be processed may be exposed directly to the radiation or may be exposed while being confined in a separate container. The latter condition is particularly appropriate for the neutron exposure since the neutrons have an effective penetration characteristic.
Thus, the use of fusion devices, with the resulting high energy neutrons, as well as alpha and X rays, allows for the direct interaction of the radiation with the reactants while limiting radioactivity problems to those caused by neutron activation. This difference alone is extremely significant in considering the use of thermonuclear reactors for chemonuclear processing.